When I am in a venue I have never worked before, I make sure to leave a little time for power check.

First, I find out where the breaker box is

Then I break out a “Fox and Hound” type breaker finder unit. The “Fox” part plugs into an outlet, the “Hound” part is slid over the breakers in the box (no need to unscrew any covers) and will indicate which breaker that the outlet the Fox sender is connected to. I use a sperry CS61200 unit but Fluke, Greenlee and others all make breaker finders.

Next I label the outlets and breakers

I then check with the house staff and promoters and see if any outlets are needed for another use, like a video person, or coffee pot. If the house plugs a coffee pot into your circuit it will most likely trip the breaker during the show.

In cases where multiple outlets are on the same circuit as the ones I am using, I will put a piece of gaff tape over the outlet with Do Not Use written on the tape. Make sure you remove the tape after the gig. I forgot to remove the tape covers in a casino ballroom once. I did another show there months later and my tape was still telling people to not use certain outlets. Oops.

Here is an article I wrote a while back about power. Check out the stuff written by Mike Sokol as well.

Tape an extension cord to your snake, find the one or two good outlets back stage and have your own power to FOH. I've been doing this since 1983. It's far easier than fooling around trying to find a good outlet near FOH.

I do the above (without taping the extension cord). wall power to amprack, amprack (via extension cord) to FOH

I do the above (without taping the extension cord). wall power to amprack, amprack (via extension cord) to FOH

Yepper! That became the way I ended up doing it because my snake stage box was close to the amp rack already. One or 2 power cables to the wall and everything branched out from the amp rack area.

I ran back line power from there, too. After having a keyboard player consistently using whatever "convenient" outlet was near the stage - that I wouldn't use for the PA - and the direct connection fun that ensued... (i.e. he ignored the tape and "bad" label kindly left there by our friend Wes G ) It's just easier to run a stage power stringer than it is to find and fix the ground loops and/or other problems.

Logged

"Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." - Kurt Vonnegut

I ran back line power from there, too. After having a keyboard player consistently using whatever "convenient" outlet was near the stage - that I wouldn't use for the PA - and the direct connection fun that ensued... (i.e. he ignored the tape and "bad" label kindly left there by our friend Wes G ) It's just easier to run a stage power stringer than it is to find and fix the ground loops and/or other problems.

I also run two power stringers from the wall outlet "of my choice" or the rack distro for the stage; one across the back and one across the front....It's a good idea to tape the unused outlets...A case in point: One of last summer's gigs I was providing the rig for an outdoor (tented) multi-band show.

As it was getting towards dark, someone found an open plug (on one of my stringers) and plugged the "tent lights" in... It threw the breaker.....yup, I forgot to tape over one unused stringer outlet.... Rather than ask, a volunteer will "sniff around the stage" to see what's open....

On another note: Is it me or does everyone seem to want to charge their phones using stage power?It seems that everyone's "sniffing power" to charge their phones these days...

I also run two power stringers from the wall outlet "of my choice" or the rack distro for the stage; one across the back and one across the front....It's a good idea to tape the unused outlets...A case in point: One of last summer's gigs I was providing the rig for an outdoor (tented) multi-band show.

As it was getting towards dark, someone found an open plug (on one of my stringers) and plugged the "tent lights" in... It threw the breaker.....yup, I forgot to tape over one unused stringer outlet.... Rather than ask, a volunteer will "sniff around the stage" to see what's open....

On another note: Is it me or does everyone seem to want to charge their phones using stage power?It seems that everyone's "sniffing power" to charge their phones these days...

Use Powercons for Production Power.Sure, you have to build adapters to plug in the back line, but it avoids unintended hookups. No adapter, no 'lecky.works for me.....Chris.